New Program called "The Key"

[Biker19]

2 minutes ago, CRUISEFAN0001 said:

 Now they've opened it up to every Tom, Dick, and Harry who wants to buy their way into Precheck - and the lines for that are actually longer at some airports at various times than the regular TSA lines.

Unlike TSA, RCI limits the number folks buying Key, for now.

[CRUISEFAN0001]

2 minutes ago, Biker19 said:

Unlike TSA, RCI limits the number folks buying Key, for now.

Then again...there's only so many passengers on any given ship...so the effect could be very similar.

 

Revenue stream = get all you can from the wallet when you can. 🤣

Edited March 4, 2019 by CRUISEFAN0001

[Biker19]

Just now, CRUISEFAN0001 said:

Revenue stream = get all you can from the wallet when you can. 🤣

Also, unlike TSA which doesn't really care that much about the length of the line or customer feedback, RCI does, somewhat.

[CRUISEFAN0001]

2 minutes ago, Biker19 said:

Also, unlike TSA which doesn't really care that much about the length of the line or customer feedback, RCI does, somewhat.

Still waiting on an issue that was raised to RCI's management 3 months ago in a 4 page letter that included documentation and details...they never responded...so much for caring.

 

Like anything else...if it brings in more $$$...look for it to be maximized.

Edited March 4, 2019 by CRUISEFAN0001

[RadioPeri]

23 minutes ago, Biker19 said:

Also, unlike TSA which doesn't really care that much about the length of the line or customer feedback, RCI does, somewhat.

 

Last I heard, the TSA's mission had nothing whatsoever to do with line lengths. Let them keep us safe -- which is their actual job -- and we have nothing to complain about. 
 

[cruisegirl1]

5 hours ago, bbahorik said:

We ARE diamond and will be diamond plus this fall when we finish our b2b.

Key gives you perks not available to diamond or even diamond plus. 

 

M

[JoeFan]

7 hours ago, bbahorik said:

They then walked us to the suite/pinnacle line for going through customs. The regular line was extremely long and would have been at least a good 45 to an hour to stand in. 

We were through customs in 5 minutes and on our way. 

We decided at that point the key is totally worth it for us! 

 

I am glad to hear this worked out. From the looks of this you sailed from Port Canaveral.

For debarkation, does RCL usually have two lines for customs?

Do they merge at some point?

And does this just go for Port Canaveral or all ports?

[Biker19]

6 minutes ago, RadioPeri said:

Last I heard, the TSA's mission had nothing whatsoever to do with line lengths. Let them keep us safe -- which is their actual job -- and we have nothing to complain about. 

Apparently, some other posters disagree.

[CRUISEFAN0001]

5 minutes ago, RadioPeri said:

 

Last I heard, the TSA's mission had nothing whatsoever to do with line lengths. Let them keep us safe -- which is their actual job -- and we have nothing to complain about. 
 

Actually, how they do their job with the rent-a-cops is indeed something to observe & evaluate, especially for those of us who travel extensively and have to experience both their great service and occasional debacles. We've seen both. TSA has a compliant website, and likely didn't take the time to create it so that no one would use it when applicable.

 

The point was to compare the impact of opening up "preferred service" lines. In that regard...as buying into preferred lines has grown for the TRA PreCheck lines...service levels have deteriorated. Some of the higher-status cruises (above our level) have legitimately questioned if The Key program may result in a similar passenger experience. It's quite a valid point.

[RadioPeri]

37 minutes ago, CRUISEFAN0001 said:

While we live in an impatient world these days...this could actually backfire. This has already happened with the TSA Precheck program. It used to be reserved for just those who flew frequently as a "perk" for them, since they used the airports regularly. Now they've opened it up to every Tom, Dick, and Harry who wants to buy their way into Precheck - and the lines for that are actually longer at some airports at various times than the regular TSA lines. So much for that great idea.

 

This is very rare, indeed, bordering on apocryphal. According to TSA, "Virtually all passengers wait less than 30 minutes in standard checkpoint lines, and 99.6% of TSA PreCheck members waited less than 10 minutes in line, according to the agency. In other words, the fast lane is almost always faster."

Does it happen? Yes, but I'd still rather be on a "busier" precheck line instead of a regular line waiting for people to take off their shoes and jackets, remove their laptops, etc. The generally more experienced travelers who bother to pay and register for Global Entry or another Trusted Traveler program are MUCH faster going through security. If random travelers luck out getting assigned precheck, they're still greatly in the minority. 

[CRUISEFAN0001]

23 minutes ago, RadioPeri said:

 

This is very rare, indeed, bordering on apocryphal. According to TSA, "Virtually all passengers wait less than 30 minutes in standard checkpoint lines, and 99.6% of TSA PreCheck members waited less than 10 minutes in line, according to the agency. In other words, the fast lane is almost always faster."

Rather than disrupt this thread about the Key - I'll simply state that your statement is quite inaccurate. I can name 4 airports where the TSA Precheck line is longer 3 days a week from 7am - 9am every week than the regular line...sometimes the wait is more than an hour. Part of that is simply having less lines for Precheck despite higher adoption.

 

This is from numerous (dozens and dozens of times, not a few) 1st hand experiences over the past few years. In 2 of those airports, they actually send emails encouraging arrivals now 3 hours prior to departure on Mondays. I've gotten through lines quicker a number of times by switching out of Precheck.

 

So getting back to topic - the Key may be one of those ideas that sounds good on paper, but in reality might not render the intended "fast lane" results if not managed well. The actual incentive to offer it is revenue - so large adoption without controls could impact lines overall. We've seen long disembarking lines on a few cruises just from existing preferred-status passengers, which comes as no surprise. Adding to those counts won't likely make things better, just more profitable for RCI. We'll have to see how The Key works out this year - perhaps it will work, perhaps not. Time will tell.

Edited March 4, 2019 by CRUISEFAN0001

[wwcruisers]

53 minutes ago, cruisegirl1 said:

Key gives you perks not available to diamond or even diamond plus. 

 

M

Yep, on last month's Indy cruise, the 'Key' people boarded immediately after the Pinnacle/Suite folks -- ahead of the D+/D group. SO glad that we were 'Loyal to Royal' all those years that it took us to reach D+!🙄

[CRUISEFAN0001]

1 minute ago, wwcruisers said:

Yep, on last month's Indy cruise, the 'Key' people boarded immediately after the Pinnacle/Suite folks -- ahead of the D+/D group. SO glad that we were 'Loyal to Royal' all those years that it took us to reach D+!🙄

We'll hit Diamond on our next cruise. We enjoy Royal Caribbean, and appreciate their Crown & Anchor program.

 

All that said, we'd have to agree with you that The Key may undermine the long-time loyalty program for many people. Then again, for what they are charging for The Key...we'll see how that program takes hold for the long run.

[JoeFan]

I plan on doing the BOGO for dinner and my two choices would be Chops and Wonderland.

 

So my question is, for sure is Jamies an option for Key embarkation lunch?

If so, have they trimmed it down like the Chops menu?

 

Is it also like Chops where you can get different appetizers and or desserts?

 

Thanks

[ToroAzul]

My wife and I are sailing RCCL, on Indy, for the first time at the end of April. The Key did not seem appealing since we go on cruises to unplug and thus were not concerned with internet. 

 

Well I just ponied up $19.95 per day. 

 

Why the change of mind, you ask? 

 

Debarkation. We found out today our daughter now has a weekend-long soccer tournament starting the Saturday we return to port! I had to change our direct 1645 flight to wheels up at 1020.

 

 

[jrljel]

On 11/5/2018 at 6:14 PM, gelli8112 said:

At the price they are charging, it will probably be cheaper to upgrade to the suite.  

Aren't these the same perks that someone stated were taken away from D and D+ earlier today.  

So, Royal took the perks from those loyal to royal and are selling them back to them for a nominal fee.

It's a pass for me.  Happy Cruising.  

 

Whoa Nellie!!  When were these perks taken away from D+ guests or is that just a rumour?  Also how soon do you embark with this...after the suites, pinnacles, and d/d+???  Anyone use it yet?

[Clarea]

7 hours ago, jrljel said:

Whoa Nellie!!  When were these perks taken away from D+ guests or is that just a rumour?  Also how soon do you embark with this...after the suites, pinnacles, and d/d+???  Anyone use it yet?

 

Reports have indicated that Key guests board right after suites and Pinnacles.

[jpw77]

So I just got back from the Anthem sailing Feb 23rd. Here is my comments from the key program:

 

Priority Boarding

We boarded in Bayonne and there didn't seem to be any Key specific boarding to be seen. After security, staff simply directed us to sit in the suites/pinnacle area which has comfier round seating than the regular seating in the yellow chairs at the opposite end of the building. There was a coffee/tea station but it ran out quickly as it wasn't cordoned off. Once boarding started behind the large door with the words "Suite Access" above, we were already seated in that area, so we just joined the line once the door opened. Not sure if there was a slower regular boarding line elsewhere.

 

Drop Off
This was a very nice perk. We had 2 carry-ons, and we took them to the royal theater and dropped them off. It was organized and sorted by deck. It was great not having to lug around any luggage. Once in our stateroom, it was parked in one of the closets. We also got our temporary key wristbands here to get us into Chops as we didn't have our seapass cards yet. We also got our voom access codes (one per key guest). For some reason the codes took many tries to work the first time and gave us an -999 error. I just kept trying again and again and eventually they worked and never had an issue again.

 

Chop Grille

The restaurant was busy, but we got seated relatively quickly and not having luggage to deal with was great. By the time lunch was done, rooms were just about ready. Windjammer gets a little long in the tooth by the last day, so a boarding lunch with our 3 dining package was great to get a nice change of pace in meals throughout our vacation.

 

Port of Call Priority Tender/etc.

We got a letter in our stateroom mentioning that we get priority debarkation in both Nassau/Coco Cay. Didn't really seem we needed to utilize this because the line itself in Nassau was almost non-existent and since we had a shore excursion in Coco Cay, we were the second tender off anyways (we just missed the first one) and there wasn't much of a line to speak of. If the line was longer, I would have probably approached staff and I assume would be taken to the front of the line.

 

Private Hours To Onboard Activities

Neither myself or my wife prefer rock climbing or flowriding. We had already pre-booked north star and ifly, so we did those once. There was a block of time for ifly for key guests at 5:00pm, but we were so beat after the shore excursion, snorkeling and running around the island that we caught some Zzzz back on board instead with our "sleeping off the vacation" door magnet.

 

Seating For Shows

We showed up 15-20 mins prior to all shows and were seated in the second floor balcony in the front along with the suites/pinnacle guests. It was actively managed by staff at each show and others were directed elsewhere. You still have to have reservations, and the reserved seating area opens up in the last 10-15mins or so to all guests.

 

Debarkation Breakfast

We had to adjust our vacation and fly home early on the Sunday unexpectedly instead of spending a few extra days in NYC, so we decided to skip the breakfast. We had planned to take advantage this otherwise since we really enjoyed the Chops lunch.

 

Priority Final Debarkation

Although boarding didn't seem all that different as a key guest, the final debarkation was phenomenal. When we decided to leave, there was a long line of people circling all the way towards Cafe270 and back around. We asked staff where key guests should go and were told to go to the Shore Excursion desk. Staff there were being trained on-the-spot on what to do as some have never done the key guest debarkation before. The trainer was instructing that key guests groups should have a staff in front and in back and be guided to the final exit. Boy, she wasn't kidding, they took us past absolutely everyone right to the final exit clearance checkpoint. Starting from the ship, that line must have been an hour+ long.

 

Other Stuff

During our cruise we would get frequent mail periodically detailing key guest benefits, etc. and we got a plate of chocolate strawberries on the second night with some key correspondence. Key guests also get special luggage tags prior to debarkation.

[blueridgemama]

jpw77. Thank you for your review of the Key. Posts like yours are so helpful because they are real time experiences as opposed to all the speculation on this thread.

[CRUISEFAN0001]

1 minute ago, blueridgemama said:

jpw77. Thank you for your review of the Key. Posts like yours are so helpful because they are real time experiences as opposed to all the speculation on this thread.

Agree.  It also help confirm a realistic experience for others.

 

Based on that report...The Key may not be right for everyone.

[elated cruiser]

My two cents on this, is that it's worth it for those who want it. I wanted it, so we grabbed it at $19.99 a day. We have two kids (11, and 14) who will use all the flow rider, rock wall, ice skating activities that are allowed and who are already asking when the private times are. It sold out quickly on our ship.

 

I am pre-considering this the equivalent of a max-pass at Disney. The people who bought it were happy they did and the ones who didn't were mad they had to stand in line. 

 

We are traveling on spring break on a maxed out ship. We are switching to Royal after being on Carnival for many years. This is our first RC cruise. I like perks. I can't help it. I do. I have zero loyalty points on RC so I am buying my way in. I like to jump to the front of the line. I like private times for sessions. I like reserved seating. I like nice lunches.  

 

I understand some people are upset about it taking away from suite perks, but it sounds like these are actually different than the suite perks, anyway? And as far as people being upset that RC is trying to nickel and dime you....well, they aren't a non-profit. 

 

Anyhoo, we sail Sunday and I will try to post an update on whether or not the key works for us. But for an extra 10 bucks a day ( I would have paid for internet for each person, regardless) I feel like being able to skip a line or two or five is worth it. I am for sure, their target customer. 

 

[Biker19]

Welcome to CC - you might have the record for the longest time in lurk mode.

Edited March 5, 2019 by Biker19

[blueridgemama]

elated cruiser.  A very honest post. Look forward to your thoughts of how the Key worked for you when you return. Have a great cruise.

[elated cruiser]

20 minutes ago, Biker19 said:

Welcome to CC - you might have the record for the longest time in lurk mode.

 

haha. I like doing research but didn't have anything to contribute. 

[Biker19]

Just now, elated cruiser said:

 I like doing research but didn't have anything to contribute. 

You are the exception.

 

CC, where folks contribute even when asked not to.